Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to telecommunications and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for screening telephone calls.
2. Description of the Related Art
A continuing problem in telecommunications is the vast number of telemarketers and other unwanted callers who continuously invade the privacy of one""s home or business. The reduced cost of telecommunications has made telemarketing a very cost effective advertising method. In addition to being very disturbing, many people find that telemarketers are much more likely to induce purchase of an unwanted service or good than are other forms of advertising.
Among the classes of people most likely to succumb to persistent telemarketers are the poor and elderly. Telemarketers are able to pinpoint the most susceptible segment of the population through purchased telephone lists. Often, these telemarketers are intentionally dishonest or misleading in identifying themselves and/or the nature of the good or service that they are selling. Since very few people record their calls, dishonest telemarketers can make misrepresentations without any evidentiary trail.
Some advancements in technology have improved a person""s ability to screen calls. Caller ID allows a person to identify the calling party in some circumstances. However, it is possible for a calling party to block the caller ID information. In this case, a call will show up as xe2x80x9cunknown name, unknown number.xe2x80x9d Since desirable parties may also show up as an xe2x80x9cunknown name, unknown numberxe2x80x9d, a receiving party must choose whether to accept a potentially undesirable call at the risk of missing a desirable call. Additionally, caller ID requires special circuitry and incurs a monthly fee from the telephone company.
Another form of screening calls is the use of an answering machine. A receiving party can listen to a message as it is being recorded, and answer the call if the caller is desirable. Many people are uncomfortable leaving messages, which results in some desirable calls being missed. Generally, only one answering machine is used per household, which requires the user to run to the machine when a call comes in. Further, answering machines are generally not practical in business situations (and many household situations); voice mail does not allow the user to intercept calls as the message is being recorded.
Accordingly, a need has arisen for an effective method and apparatus to screen calls.
The present invention provides a method of screening calls, wherein an unauthorized calling party is prompted that a fee will be charged in order to establish a connection to the called party. Responsive to an action indicative of a rejection of the fee charge, the call is terminated. If the calling party indicates an acceptance of the fee charge, a connection is established and a charge is made to the calling party.
The present invention provides significant advantages over the prior art. Persons who knowingly making unwanted calls will generally disconnect the call in order to avoid paying the fee. If an undesirable caller, such as a telemarketer, chooses to complete the connection, at least the called party will be compensated for the inconvenience of answering the call. On the other hand, the called party can eliminate the charges to desirable parties, or can use a list of authorized callers to bypass the charging mechanism.